22 
[No. 1, 
C. C. Das —Note on the Buddhist Golden Book. 
and at the time of ritualistic service recite from memory in the manner 
of the Ceylonese Buddhists. The Siamese got Buddhism from Cambodia 
where it was introduced from Ceylon. Their sacred Pali books are written 
in the Cambodian character which is a modification of the square Pali 
The Golden Book is not to be found in Siam, Cambodia or Ceylon. Dr. 
Frankfurter, the author of the Pali grammar, has published a table of 
the various characters in which the sacred Pali books are written. In 
his list no mention is made or specimen given of the character of the 
Golden Book. Mr. Herbert Baynes the latest writer on the Kamma-vacd 
has not given any description of the tamarind-seed character in which 
the Burmese mauuscript on ritual is written. In the subjoined plate 
(Plate I) I have arranged the three characters, viz .—the characters of the 
A^oka inscriptions ; the ancient Pali obtained from Sir Charles Elliott’s 
manuscript, the Golden Book ; and the square Pali character as given 
by Dr. Frankfurter in his Pali Grammar. Comparing the character of 
the Golden Book with the first and the last, I find it bears a closer resem¬ 
blance to the A 9 bka character than to the square Pali which has hitherto 
been considered to be the character in which the early Buddhist books 
were written. Moreover, the entire absence of the vowel long i, either 
as a letter or a vowel sign in the Golden Book, shews that its characters 
belong to an earlier stage than the square Pali, in which the long i is a 
prominent feature. The square Pali is in fact an ornamental form 
derived from the ancient Pali character of the Golden Book brought by 
Sir Charles Elliott. The long i exists in the Burmese, Cambodian and 
Ceylonese characters which owe their origin to the square Pali, There 
is one more peculiarity in the Golden Book which deserves notice. The 
letter which is absent in the A 9 dka character, is to be found in the Golden 
Book, from which circumstance I may conclude that the A 9 oka character 
was older than the character of the Golden Book. 
The name Pali , according to the Southern Buddhists, has two signi¬ 
fications ; first, the sacred books and treatises which emanated from the 
Buddha and were delivered to the world by his disciples like the Christian 
Gospels. These were arranged in serial order and were called Pali. In 
this sense the name Pali signifies only the books or series of treatises, and 
not the language or character to which it is now ordinarily applied. 
Secondly, the name Pali signifies anything that is formed in rows, 
like the lines of birds flying in the air. This meaning is significant on 
account of its agreeing with the rows of letters as well as the lines of writ¬ 
ing in a book. It is therefore probable, if we are to believe the account 
of the Buddhists, that the earliest name that was given to the second 
stage of the written character of India was Pali. According to them, the 
classical or ancient Mdgadht, known as the language of the Pali, i.e., of 
